A review by ellieb_reads
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

This one is really difficult to rate/review. Adichie’s writing is exceptional. Her prose is beautiful and visceral, and some passages truly took my breath away. I wrote down multiple quotes that I really loved. But if I’m being honest, I did not enjoy reading this. The book tells the connected stories of four women, three of whom are super wealthy and another who is one of the three’s housekeeper. Two of them are downright insufferable and kind of cruel. One is kind but infuriatingly naive. For a book about four women, so much of their stories focused on relationships with men and their desire to get married and have children. And that’s just not a book I’m eager to read. I expected a novel about friendships between women, but the characters were mostly mean to each other and men were mean to them—and that didn’t make for a particularly pleasant read. The writing is almost certainly 5 stars, but my enjoyment was probably no more than 3. So I’m averaging with 4, I guess.